The Advertisements of Copers. 187 



be "-ivcn or sent to both vendor and purchaser ; if after such notice either party or both parties 

 shall be absent at the time fixed, Messrs. Tattersall, or one of them, or the said person appointed, 

 may proceed to try and make a decision in his or their absence. No action shall be brought 

 against Messrs. Tattersall or one of them, or the said person appointed, in consequence of any 

 decision made in accordance with the above rules." 



Farmers who hunt have often very good horses, made handy in summer as hacks and in 

 winter as hunters. They are dealers, in fact, and ask as much money as dealers. They seldom 

 have highly-finished harness-horses, and often lose a profit by not taking enough pains to complete 

 the education of good-looking young hacks. A quarter of the value of a handsome riding-horse 

 depends on his manners. 



An inexperienced person who goes with his groom to a fair to pick up anything better 

 than an unbroken pony, out of a Welsh or Irish drove, deserves the fate of Moses Primrose. 

 Advertisements in the London daily and .sporting newspapers offer opportunities of purchase 

 from private individuals, who, in consequence of a death, or loss of fortune, or some other honest 

 cause, desire to sell genuine horses ; but there are a great many advertisements concocted and 

 inserted day after day by organised gangs of swindlers. Whenever you find that the advertiser 

 is "willing to allow a month's trial," you may take it for granted that he is a coper. When 

 you read of " a pair of horses, quiet in harness, excellent hacks, and perfect hunters, the property 

 of a gentleman deceased, price not so much an object as a good home," then you may be sure 

 the thing is a swindle. There is, however, one test as infallible as Ithuriel's spear — propose an 

 examination at the Royal Veterinary College. 



The victims of coping advertisements are generally people who know nothing yet desire 

 to secure wonderful bargains, or the very clever, conceited people who, knowing a little, fancy 

 they know everything, and that nobody can take them in. A coper, in a moment of gin-and 

 •water candour, confessed that his principal victims were the country clergymen and Indian officers. 



There is one axiom which, whether true or not in literature, is strictly true in horse-dealing — 

 "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." If nature has given you a good eye for proportion, 

 and a natural talent for observation, when you have successively bought a horse with every fault 

 you will begin to be able to choose one for yourself. 



If you know nothing when you commence, you must trust some one, and the great point 

 is to trust one whose knowledge and experience deserve your confidence. Veterinary surgeons, 

 like the medical attendants of human beings, are of all degrees of aptitude and experience. 

 Natural aptitude, cultivated by constant practice, makes a veterinary surgeon a judge of soundness, 

 action, temperament, and constitution. But as there are people whom no amount of instruction 

 will ever make musical, so a man may pass his life amongst horses and not learn the difference 

 between a good one and one good for nothing. 



Assuming that your intended purchase is substantially sound — that is, "competent to do 

 the ordinary work of an ordinary horse " — and that he is not vicious, and is broken to ride or 

 drive, or both, there are several other important points to be taken into consideration before 

 you are sure of " a good horse," which, unless you have a much longer trial than can usually 

 be expected, must be taken on trust ; for instance, temperament and constitution, and other 

 faults that do not amount to actual vice or positive unsoundness. 



RIDE AND DRIVE HOR.SES. 

 The opinion that harness-work destroyed the fine action of a riding-horse or hunter was 

 quite true in days gone by, when all roads, in wet seasons, were at least fetlock deep in clay 



